Tonegawa: About the Author

Profile	利根川進 Susumu Tonegawa Video Introduction	Book
Autobiography (Maintained by the website of the Nobel Foundation)		Nobel Prize press release (Maintained by the website of the Nobel Foundation)

Use the following questions to guide your exploration of the above sites:

• Who is Susumu Tonegawa?
  1. Dr. Tonegawa is said to be an extremely bright scientist, but also a very hard-working researcher. What kinds of factors have contributed to the making of this man?
  2. Why do you think Dr. Tonegawa decided to study molecular biology, then later immunology?
  3. Who are the people who influenced Dr. Tonegawa's scientific career?
• What kind of work has he done?
  1. What is the structure of the antibody?
  2. What are the roles of the variable part and the constant part?
  3. How does Dr. Tonegawa explain how hundreds and thousands of different types of antibodies can be generated from a limited number of genes in the B cells?
  4. What impact does Dr. Tonegawa's discovery have?